One of the great "what if"s of Hollywood history - what if Louis B Mayer had not resigned in 1951, how would MGM have fared? The studio was on the slide before Dore Schary came to the studio, and Mayer lacked the ability to produce film's on an individual basis so might not have been able to adapt to the changing environment. But surely MGM would have had better years up until Mayer's death in 1957 - at the very least their record at recruiting stars would have been better. But maybe Mayer would have been dead against any change and avoided some of their co-production successes, so...
Mayer really should have died in 1946 - Hollywood at its peak, MGM at the peak of Hollywood. He lived another 11 years, the first of the moguls to die, which meant his reputation has suffered. Everyone who worked or almost worked for MGM has an LB Mayer story, mostly making fun of him or getting one over him. Eyleman adds that Mayer didn't like writers and writers write memoirs - he also copped the blame for destroying two of Hollywood's favourite martyrs: Judy Garland and Irving Thalberg. Eyleman seems to have been motivated to write this book partly by a desire to rehabilitate Mayer - something Charles Higham did in his 1992 biography. Eyleman seems to make a habit out of going over well covered topics eg John Ford - but he still manages to find something new - this is an excellent book.
I think he's a little hard on Dore Schary - Schary cops it from people but he came up with some excellent films eg Bad Day at Black Rock. He should have been an MGM producer, headed up a unit or something, not run the whole show - wrong person to handle the MGM gloss. (A big thing in Schary's favour is he was the first mogul to make a great success after he left movie making - he wrote a hit play and directed two others).
Could anyone have taken Mayer's place successfully? Lew Wasserman is the most likely - Mayer tried to entice him over to MGM in the late 1940s but Wasserman was happily ensconsed at MCA at that stage where he was pretty much top dog and he would have clashed with Mayer. Still, just as Mayer was Hollywood's leader in the 40s and 30s, so was Wasserman in the 60s and 70s - like Mayer, Wasserman knew how to schmooze politicians, took a long range view (also like Mayer his time would come, he ran out of vision and he found himself on the outer, a sad albeit rich man). Who else? Selznick's best days were behind him, ditto Wagner (though both would have been better than Schary). My own pick is Irene Selznick, Mayer's daughter - I think she would have been brilliant.
Mayer was a tyrant, but a very human one - he had rages, he'd cry, develop crushes, love movies. Capable of ruthlessness - the fact that his last few years were hard and his reputation suffered shouldn't fool everyone into thinking he was a lovable teddy bear. Much of the nostalgia for him is more nostalgia for the old ways. But he build a tremendous studio, and many stars owe their careers to him: Greer Garson, Garbo, etc. This book does him justice - I really liked it.
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